The subject matter disclosed herein relates to turbomachines and, more particularly, to a turbomachine blade with an improved stiffness to weight ratio.
Turbomachine systems include gas turbines, steam turbines, hydro turbines, compressors, and other rotating machinery. In general, such turbomachines are configured to use rotary blades to extract energy from a fluid flow, such as gas, steam, or water. For instance, the rotary blades may extend radially outwards from a supporting rotor, and the rotary blades may force rotation of the rotor as the fluid flow passes across the rotary blades. Certain turbomachines include rotary blades having a tip shroud located at a tip portion of each rotary blade extending from the rotor for added stiffness and stability. Unfortunately, existing designs of tip shrouds on such rotary blades may limit performance of the turbomachine system. For example, the size of the tip shroud (i.e., rotary blade tip coverage) may be restricted for tip shrouds based on tip shroud weight. Consequently, a stiffness to weight ratio of a tip shroud designed to provide a desired stiffness may limit the available rotary blade tip coverage, thereby limiting the efficiency of the turbomachine.